I'd like to set a custom motd ("message of the day") on my machine (currently Mac OS X 10.6.5 using Bash with Terminal.app).

In /etc/ there was no motd file so I created one with some sample text. But the message doesn't show up when I restart Terminal. I've tried to logout and then login but it still doesn't seem to kick in.

Seems I worked it out. My motd not showing up must have been due to the fact that I had touched/added an empty file in my home directory called .hushlogin, which actually supresses any login messages (seems it doesn't just kill motd but any other login messages as well, as I understand it). At any rate, my problem is somehow solved and chances are I forgot to delete that .hushlogin file.